Choices
by Actual Salad
Summary: AU LaurWalk. Joe chose a different school over UMich and thus never joined StarKid. M for future chapters.


"Hey, Walker. Where you off to?"

Joseph Walker looked up at his friend Aaron from his desk, where he was packing up his briefcase. "Oh, I'm heading home for the weekend."

"Right, right. You and Jess –" Aaron said, but stopped himself. "Sorry."

"Yeah, sorry," Joe said, shutting his briefcase with a snap. "See you Monday."

He walked past Aaron, down the hall and stopped in front of the elevator to press the down button. Luckily, when the elevator doors opened and he stepped in, it was only him to ride down the 10 floors. He leaned against the back wall and sighed. Jess. Of course someone would bring her up. Jess had been his girlfriend at UMass. They moved to New York together. She'd been the one to convince Joe to switch his major from Theatre to Business…only to break up with him for an actor three years after graduation. It had been a week, and she had moved everything out of their Brooklyn apartment that Monday. It was Friday, and he was not looking forward to spending the weekend alone, so he made the decision to head back home to Cambridge to see his family. It hadn't occurred to him until after he called his dad to tell him he was coming that they'd inquire about Jess's whereabouts.

He moved through the doors as soon as they opened. He stepped out into sunshine of an early June and hailed a cab. They drove through Manhattan and into Brooklyn, where they took a quick stop at his apartment so he could get his things and change out of his suit. Then, back to Manhattan they went for Joe to catch his 4:30 train to Boston.

He rested his head on the window next to his seat on the train. He hadn't left the city since his break up. He wondered what Jess was up to. Probably with her boyfriend, walking hand in hand through Central Park and -. He didn't let himself continue the thought.

They pulled into the station, and he caught the T to take him to Cambridge, where his family lived. Once there, he stepped out into the brisk air. It was dark then, almost 9. He got another cab, but the ride was short.

He walked up to the house and opened the door a crack to stick his head through. "Hello? Anyone home?" He walked fully inside and put his bag next to the staircase, just in time to see Kara, his younger sister race down the stairs.

"Joe!" she yelled, and flung her arms around him.

"Hey, Kare, where're mom and dad?" he asked, looking around.

"They went down to Mohegan Sun. Once they heard you were coming they left. It's not because they wanted to see you! It's not that at all! But I have tickets to a concert tomorrow and mom didn't want to sit through the show. So she figured if you were coming you'd take me and they'd be back Sunday morning." She said quickly, before Joe could interrupt.

"Just like them, isn't it. Well. I'll take you to your concert. Is it in Boston?" he said, a bit excited.

"Yeah! At the House of Blues!" she said, pulling him down onto the couch.

"Cool. Who are you seeing?"

"StarKid."

"What the hell is StarKids?"

"StarKid, Joe. It's singular. Not plural."

"Still, what is it?"

"It's a musical theatre group! They got started by doing a Harry Potter musical and it went viral on youtube so they made more musicals! And they're going on tour performing songs from them. I saw them back in November, too! There's A Very Potter Musical, Me and My Dick-"

"What!?" his eyes widened.

"Me and My Dick. A Very Potter Sequel, Starship, Holy Musical B man...oh! And a Webseries called Little White Lie."

"Me and My Dick."

"Yes. It's about a boys journey through high school with his best friend-"

"I got it."

"His best friend is his penis.:"

"His what?"

"His penis. Oh! Have you ever seen Glee."

"J-jess watched it…sometimes."

"I forgot about Jess. I'm sorry, Joe…" she said, frowning.

"It's fine. What about Glee?"

"Oh! The guy Blaine, he was Harry Potter. And he wrote a lot of the music. And he was in the concert the last time I saw them."

"I got it. I'll suffer through this concert for you, though."

"Thanks, Joe."

"You eat yet?"

"I'm 16. Obviously."

"Right. Okay. I'll make myself something…or…pizza."

"Pizza. I'm gonna head back upstairs. I really missed you, Joe."

"I miss you, too." Joe watched as she ran back upstairs as quickly as she came down. The next day would be an interesting one.


End file.
